A wish she built a dream on: Having yearned to appear on Broadway since she was a young girl, Dana Costello is finally on her way.

By NAILA FRANCISStaff Writer

Tuesday

Dec 25, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 25, 2012 at 8:10 AM

The songs have been with Dana Costello for years.

Since the Mount Holly-reared actor got her hands on the original Broadway recording of “Jekyll & Hyde” during her sophomore year at Rancocas Valley Regional High School, she’s been singing them everywhere. Two in particular, “A New Life” and “Someone Like You,” became part of her standard repertoire.

“I sang these two songs for everything, every high school audition, for my college audition, for talent shows. I just loved the music for that show,” says Costello, who was born Dana Musgrove in Trenton and then lived in Mount Holly until she was 16, when her parents, Paul and Melissa Musgrove, moved the family to Santa Barbara. “I’m a big fan of (composer) Frank Wildhorn and his music.

“I hear the music start to play and I just want to sing. I want to belt that big note at the end. I want to have this beautiful aching melody when I’m sad or reflective about something. He just takes me where I want to go. He writes songs that singers want to sing.”

Now, the New York City-based Costello is performing those songs before her largest audience ever as part of the cast of the all-new Broadway-bound “Jekyll & Hyde,” which is on a 25-week tour that stops Wednesday at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia. Costello, who is the understudy for Emma (played by Teal Wicks of “Wicked” fame), also has the role of Nellie and is part of the ensemble.

“Ever since I was very little and saw my first Broadway show, this has just been my life’s dream,” she says. “Every birthday cake I blew out, any time it was 11:11 on a clock, with every wishbone ... every wish my entire life has been ‘Let me get a Broadway show by my birthday or by Christmastime.’

“Now, I have the beginning of a career I always wanted. I’m so excited to be on Broadway and so happy that it’s in a show I love.”

Costello was a tot when she began courting the spotlight, inspired by her collection of Disney movies.

“There are countless videos my mother has taken of me at 4 singing ‘Part of Your World’ and putting on little plays in the kitchen. Apparently, I begged and begged my mother for voice lessons when I was about 8, and of course I cried through the first one and my mother was so ashamed, thinking she was one of those stage mothers,” she says.

But Costello, who studied with Robert Edwin of Cinnaminson, quickly warmed to her tutelage. By 9, she earned her first paid role, playing Marta in a production of “The Sound of Music” at the old Twelve Caesars Theater in Philadelphia. When her parents took her to see “Beauty and the Beast” on Broadway two years later, she knew she’d discovered what she was meant to do.

“Music, especially for me, just has that direct line into your heart or into your soul. There’s something about it that really touches you and moves you in a certain way. ... Putting that to a story to heighten a story — when a scene just isn’t enough anymore and an actor has to burst into song to convey what they’re talking about — that’s such a beautiful thing,” she says.

After performing in several productions locally and at Rancocas Valley Regional, and later Santa Barbara High School, she attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts to determine, she says, whether she truly had what it took to make it in such a cutthroat business. Her confidence boosted by winning leading roles in shows such as “Beauty and the Beast,” Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” she headed to New York City after graduating.

She was doing the usual — auditioning and waitressing and landing shows near and far from Broadway — when she saw a notice for a chorus call for “Jekyll & Hyde.” After five callbacks, the last with star Constantine Maroulis in the room, she was thrilled to learn that not only had she been cast as Emma’s understudy, she had the role of Nellie, too, though it’s quite a departure from the parts she’s used to getting.

“My parents are very proud. I get my break in this business and my big part is a whore,” she says, laughing. “It’s a small little featured role, but I feel like she’s got a big life. I play her as this wisecracking, big-personality prostitute.

“In my career so far, I tend to always play the Disney princess or the ingénue or the sweet something or other. The last show I did, I was Jo March in ‘Little Women.’ ... It’s really fun to be the whore. It’s PG-13 so nothing gross is happening onstage. I just get to play a bit of a dirtier, grittier part.”

She acknowledges being on the road does have its challenges, especially since she just got married in June and went on tour in September. But she’s thankful for her husband’s support — and for whatever stroke of luck brought her to her Broadway dreams.

“I can’t tell you what I did differently in this audition that I didn’t do before. I was just finally the right person for the part,” she says. “I feel like my life has started; now, I can dream of bigger and better things.”

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